A giddy found-footage shot heard ‘round the world! For years, we’ve been waiting for an intrepid soul to craft an entirely narrative feature comprised of images and sounds from other feature films — and Final Cut – Ladies And Gentlemen, the culmination of three years’ worth of editing by visionary Hungarian director György Pàlfi (Taxidermia), is nothing short of astonishing. With the totality of the moviegoing experience as its subject, Final Cut juggles clips from over 450 of the greatest films of all time, and bends deep reserves of movie tricks, tropes and triumphs into a single flowing arc. Iconic characters are raised through childhood, fall in love, go to war, marry — and as we jump from Marilyn Monroe to Jackie Chan, from Ozu to Lynch, from the Twenties to the Millenium and back again, we bask in the unity of our shared mythos. Whether you take it in as either an immersive art piece or the all-time highlight reel of your dreams, Final Cut taps directly into the cinematic subconscious with a sensitivity sure to captivate casual movie buffs and hardcore cineastes in equal measure.
Dir. György Pálfi, 2012, digital presentation, 84 min.